Mexico-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, former attorney, and a best-selling author who is the founder of an app called SongwritersdB, having written over two thousand songs himself over the years. He has lived in the major music meccas of New York and Nashville, and in 2018 he completed the construction of a pro recording studio on the premises of his own home and went on to record a number of local jazz and rock bands in his 32-channel studio.
“I actually started on the accordion because I guess in those days buying a piano was kind of expensive for a lot of young working couples like my parents were.”
“At an early age – I’m no Mozart for sure, but – I took to writing my own music, just enjoyed making things up. I said I'd rather play my own tune than somebody else's.”
“Like a lot of young teenage guitar players, I wanted to be a famous rock and roll player. I quickly gave that up, but I did like arranging and so I studied arranging in jazz composition, where you’re writing for an 18-piece band.”
“Duke Ellington handed me my diploma. And I’ve got the photo to prove it.”
“I got into the Boston University Law School and so, music took the backseat for a while, but I never gave it up. I always played guitar and continued to write songs.”
“I wrote a book on Medicaid planning and lived off the royalties… 300-page book that I sold on Amazon and that was enough for me to live on.”
“When I got to Boston, I did play in a few local rock bands, oldies bands and so forth.”
“The Nashville experience is amazing because you're in a town where they say if you throw a rock at a tree, you'll probably hit a couple of songwriters.”
“If your prompt is to write me a song about the following topic and you let the AI you spit out the lyrics … I wouldn't enjoy doing that; it might get the job done, maybe if you're writing a commercial it'll be good, but as a creative person I don't find them very satisfying.”
“If I wanted to improve my tennis game I wouldn't play with people worse than me. I would try to find somebody a little bit better; not a pro, but somebody who's at the next level. I would play with them and try to improve my game. It's the same in songwriting; you try to find somebody who's not a famous artist because probably they've got all the work they need so they wouldn't be interested in teaching you, but you’d find somebody kind of at the next level and write with them.”
“The problem is not necessarily the song, but it's the connections. So, for somebody to live outside of Nashville, they're not going to develop the connections. The number of hit songwriters for country music that don't live in Nashville you can probably count on one hand.”
“The nice thing about co-writing is you double your connections. So, I say if I write with a guy who writes with a guy who knows a guy at the publishing house up the street, that betters my chances professionally of getting the song cut or getting it heard by those in the know.”
“What Are You Waiting For?”
“Under Western Skies”